Technology: Crop yields up to 100kg of nickel metal per hectare

Yellow tuft alyssum is on course to become Europe’s most unusual crop. It is being grown as part of an EU-funded research project in Albania, Greece, Austria and Spain.

It grows naturally all over the Balkans and Turkey, on serpentine soils — soils that are infertile, and which have a high nickel metal content.

When yellow tuft alyssum plant is harvested and dried, its leaves and shoots have a 1% nickel content. As a result, the harvest can yield up to 100kg of nickel per hectare